How to Build Real-World Projects as a Developer
The process of getting your environment configured is similar to getting your workspace organised. Make those folders. Download those dependencies. Give meaningful names to your files.
I suppose most of us can identify with the scenario when we are looking at a blank IDE screen and just can’t decide what to do.
The possibilities are so many, and our brain is just frozen trying to figure out how to turn that idea into reality.
Personally, I have spent years experimenting, failing, and relearning through different projects, and I have discovered that it is less about strict rules and more about getting the project to ‘talk’ to you. Let me tell you how I initiate the work cycle.
Start With What Feels Familiar
Letting Your Tech Stack Show
Think of your tech stack not merely as a tick, list of items, but as your vocabulary. Pick a handful of programming languages and frameworks that you like to use, don’t worry if they’re “in” or “out”. These will be your go to tools when things get rough. In case you are exploring a completely new tech stack, don’t hesitate to combine it with something you already know. The aim here is to get the work done, not to showcase the tech stack you are using.
Sketch Before You Build
For this step, I keep a physical notebook. It is a non-fancy computer programming tool job. Instead, I just use a pen and a piece of paper. Draw squares where things catch your eye in the app. Connect them with arrows and write down a few things about how the data is moving from point A to point B. Writing beautiful documentation is not the work. It is about deciding how you want things to work before developers make it look like they have just come down from Mount Sinai with stone tablets, hours of problems that could have been avoided by a simple “big picture” moment.
